WHAT AGE WERE YOU BORN? (a short film)

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WHAT AGE WERE YOU BORN? (a short film)

THE BACK STORY

The background to this movie is long, complicated, a little bit sad. If you know my story, you’ll have heard it a few times, but if you haven’t, the story goes something like this.

My sister and I were born in the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway in Ireland, to an amazing mother and an awful dad. To cut a very long, brutal story short, my father was in prison, he was very violent. He was an alcoholic. He’d been in prison in the USA, in the UK, and in Ireland for various different things, and been on the run for various stages too. In the end we had to flee to Northern Ireland, where we grew up.

From that stage we were on welfare for a decade or so as my mom recovered from the emotional damage she incurred at the hands of this man, and life was tough, but okay. It was the ’90s in Northern Ireland, and life was okay. My mom finally got her life back together, became a social worker, and I started my crazy life with the every country in the world stuff.

Despite the awful situation my mom went through, she ended up sacrificing everything, really, for my sister and me, and everyone else around her. She was a volunteer at the Samaritans, working nights on suicide hotlines. Her social work role had her intervening in difficult family situations, and she just always put herself last. She put everyone before her.

DIAGNOSIS

Just as I started making some money online with my business, it was time for me to take care of my mom the way she took care of me. And in 2012, just as that all started, my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Of course, that hit everyone like a sledgehammer, my mom most of all: denial, grief, depression. But after six or nine months of that, my mom decided that she wasn’t going to let it hold her back, and instead this diagnosis acted as a catalyst for her to live the life that she had been missing over the last few decades. And with that then, my mom and I backpacked through over 50 countries in the world together, from Afghanistan to Togo, back-to-back night buses across Peru and Ecuador, all over the world.

FUNDRAISING

As my mom’s Parkinson’s regressed further, we decided we should do some challenges together and try to raise some money for Parkinson’s. The first one was her 70th birthday, where we were going to attempt to climb Mount Fuji in Japan, which isn’t a walk in the park for normal people, but my mom, ten years with Parkinson’s into her 70s, it was basically her Everest. And this movie is a little snapshot of that journey, and me and my mom clashing heads perhaps as we tried to raise some money for Parkinson’s. We went on to the Senegal marathon together, to do a 100-kilometer cycle across Jordan together, and we’ve had endless beautiful experiences.

cycling in jordan — My mum and I at the finish line, 86 miles later!

WHERE WE ARE TODAY

My mom now lives with me, or 500 meters from me in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where we recently finished building a beautiful house for her. And life now is pretty good for my mom. So with that, I feel like this movie is a kind of beautiful story to know that you’re diagnosed with some awful diseases or chronic conditions, that it doesn’t have to mark the end of your life. And my mom has said multiple times to me and many others that these last 15 years with Parkinson’s have probably been the best 15 years of her life. And who knows what her life would have been without that diagnosis, and we continue to go strength to strength. So thanks everyone for watching, and if Parkinson’s has affected you, or you’re moved by this video or this story, feel free to donate, or if you can’t donate, perhaps even just share the fundraiser below. 100% of all donations get donated. We don’t take a penny. All this crazy stuff we do is out of our own pocket. And thank you very much, and who knows what the next challenge for us is.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Donation link to help find a cure for Parkinson’s HERE:

https://www.gofundme.com/climbing-mount-fuji-at-70-with-Parkinsons

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